Rev. Al Sharpton, Founder and President of the National Action Network (NAN), will bring the NAN AI Fluency Initiative to Harlem on Tuesday, October 20th at NAN's House of Justice. Doors open at 6:00 PM and the class runs from 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM, marking the first AI Fluency training held in Reverend Sharpton's home State, following sessions in Newark, Houston, Cleveland, Chicago, and Tallahassee. All participants are asked to bring their own laptops or tablets if they have one.
The House of Justice, Rev. Jesse Jackson's Workshop, is NAN's Harlem headquarters, purchased and renovated this year and named for the man who gave Rev. Sharpton his start. Rev. Jackson died in February at the age of 84. The building is home to the organization's weekly Saturday Action Rally, and this will be the first time NAN teaches the AI Fluency Initiative inside its own house.
The AI Fluency Initiative is NAN's original program, built and led by the organization to ensure that communities of color are full participants in the artificial intelligence economy. Each training runs as a working session rather than a lecture, meeting participants wherever they are in their AI understanding. From those who have never used AI, to those who use it every day, NAN's Fluency Program sends each attendee home with skills, resources, and tangible work they drafted during the class. Susan Hearn, NAN's Lead AI Fluency Strategist, leads the Initiative.
The program launched earlier this year at NAN Newark Tech World in Newark, New Jersey. It traveled to Houston in September, where Rev. Sharpton led “AI and Our Future” as part of NAN's “Next Mile” series, to The Greater Abyssinia Baptist Church in Cleveland, to Chicago's South Side, and to the Bethel Family Life Center in Tallahassee. In each city participants have ranged from first-time users to experienced practitioners, and have left equipped to direct these tools toward their own goals.
“In 1969 Reverend Jesse Jackson put me to work running Operation Breadbasket here in New York, and that job was about one thing: getting our people involved with the economy instead of outside it. We have carried this training to Newark, Houston, Cleveland, Chicago, and Tallahassee. Now we teach it in our own house on Hancock Place. Artificial intelligence is where that same fight lives now.”
Rev. Al Sharpton · Founder & President, National Action NetworkPlease note: Participants are asked to bring their own laptop if they have one. Anyone without a laptop is still welcome to attend.